If you’re a City of Heroes fan – or any kind of superhero fan – then you’re gonna want to check out the brand-new and never-before-revealed early-game Ship of Heroes map that Heroic Games just sent over. Remember, SoH is literally set on a starship, but it’s so massive that it fits all kinds of real-world zones inside.
“Every new MMORPG gets to the point where they can begin sharing the current version of the persistent level with their community,” Heroic Games writes. “Ship of Heroes is at that point right now. The map below is our first viewable version of the map of Apotheosis City. While every part of the city has not be allocated to a zone yet, it is clear that there will be about a dozen zones in the first playable level.”
Click the map above to really zoom on in. A few notes from the devs:
The Apotheosis City level is large – larger than the starting maps in City of Heroes and probably also SWTOR, for any of the first four game-entry worlds. It is a large open world, not unbounded but large by modern game standards. The devs have managed to avoid the dated look of endless prairie, desert, or similar-looking Soviet architecture that became common 10 years ago. Comparing to modern games, Apotheosis City is about the same size as the map of Fortnite’s Battle Royale, for example, but with much more urban space.
The FHS Justice uses a modular in construction with 20 levels (and sublevels) along with helm and engine levels, each level is .75 miles in diameter, like Apotheosis City but very different in function and appearance. The ship is 20.4 miles long. As the game grows, each level will become playable area for missions, careers, harvesting, and possible bases but there is a literal universe of potential expansion with alien and human ships and other worlds.
This map will become a tool in-game, as well as providing fans with the ability to zoom in and place some of the scenes they already become familiar with – such as the Arch, the Science Park, Heroic Plaza and the Warehouse District.
Heroic Games tells us that the map is due to get periodic updates, with the next slated for April or May. We “still have the rest of 2018 to complete the planned portion of the map before Beta begins,” they write. Expect more details on the individual zones in future teases! And stay tuned for this afternoon, when we’ll have our full report from our meeting with Heroic Games from GDC!
